Author
Topic: Probe (Read 892 times)

“Once again Mr Allen, if you would please, from the beginning.”, said the man in the flannel suit. The woman sitting next to him, adjusted her equipment, flicking on a few switches, turning a few knobs, before turning her attention back at the young soldier on the opposite end of the table. The machine whirred into life, a steady low hum now filling the cramped room.“Specialist John Allen, 23rd Brosca Light Infantry.”, the young man started, clearing his throat. “I was stationed on watch two weeks ago, the night of the.. incident. Me and my platoon-”“How many men were there along with you?”“..Me and thirteen others. Standard complement. We were sent down to investigate a possible breach, someone who had slipped past our defenses, and gotten to the elevator at the shaft.”

“How did you know the elevator had been used.”“Its designed to let out this blaring alarm, if its been kicked into operation.” , the soldier suppressed a sigh, most of the details these people knew already. They probably knew far more than he did by now. “By the time we reached the shaft, it was already disappearing into the darkness of the chasm. It takes about twenty minutes to reach bottom, and another twenty minutes for it to come back up.” He continued.“Do you get very many such breaches. People going down to the labyrinth without authorization?” the suit queried.“No, no, of course not. No one in there right mind would want to go down there voluntarily. I mean..we of course had our orders, we have training, special equipment-”“None of which seems to have helped your squad Mr Allen. Some would say its a miracle you’re with us still, when everyone else is not.”

“I had nothing to do with my squad going MIA, as I have said many times before. I..I was on recon patrol, I got separated-”“Did you get along well with your colleagues Mr Allen? Did you have any arguments with your CO? I understand serving time on Rift duty is a stressful job, the hours are long, the environment is harsh, the terrain unforgiving, the nearest inhabited town is more than a day away.”“No, no... well there was this one time, I told the Captain of the noises we heard when we were down there, it was this...grating sound, like scratching metal, although more high pitched. Me, Lamont, Jonas, we all heard it.. But the captain didn’t think much of it.”The woman reached for a glass of water, took a few sips, didn’t offer any to the interrogate, adjusted her horn rim glasses, and resumed her stare, as if the intensity would reveal some hidden truth which John had sought to suppress.

“Tell me, about when the elevator came back up, I understand your squad was sent down to investigate.” the suit droned, his stare no less intense.“We filed in, went down with two buggies for fast transport, I had one of them, Lamont had the other. The idea was to send us ahead for recon, cover more ground, the rest were on foot. We hit the ground, twenty minutes later, the gates opened, me and Lamont fanned out in opposite tunnels, the rest of the team split into three teams of four-”“Is this normal protocol, when you’re searching for someone lost in the tunnels”“Yes, it’s a standard search pattern we use; two buggies, the rest on foot, we meet back at the base of the shaft an hour from the time we hit the ground. But we haven’t had to use this in a long while.”

“Let’s skip ahead to what happened after you covered some ground on your vehicle? Say about twenty minutes in.”“I was reporting on my progress, there was no sign of anyone, it was almost pitch black down there, very little light. Lamont suggested we check some of the uncharted tunnels, the sergeant quickly shot that idea down, he was going to suggest we not go further in, when all of a sudden, the Comms cut off mid sentence. One minute we were all talking to each other, next minute, silence. This isn’t totally unusual, signals sometimes get scrambled down there, it’s the minerals in the rock, or so we’ve been told, but they usually come back in a minute or two, and usually there is residual static. This time there was nothing.. Just silence. I felt a slight wind at my back, which shouldn’t have been there. I turned; it was coming from down one of the tunnels. I shouted, ‘Is someone there? You shouldn’t be down here, it’s not safe.’ No reply. I turned my back, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand, like I was being watched. I turned again, and I saw this silhouette standing there, watching me, it was about seven feet tall, upright, all I could see was the white of its eyes, the rest was shrouded in black. Next thing I knew, I had revved the engine, and was speeding down the tunnel back the way I came. I stopped at the intersection, half way back, and shouted Lamont. I heard my voice echo, one time, two times, three times, the fourth time, someone, something called my name... Johhhnnn.. in this hissing, high pitch tone. This time, I didn’t stop until I made it back to the elevator. The entire ride back, I heard hundreds of footsteps running behind me, chasing me, when I turned my head back to see, I couldn’t see nothing, it was pitch black; but I got the feeling if I stopped the buggy, I wouldn’t be going up the shaft again.”, the specialist looked down, grateful they couldn’t see his hands shake in his lap.

“Mr Allen, it seems you were jumping at shadows, literally. Do you have any proof of this thing you think you saw, any recording, video, audio, anything.” the suit said, the faint outline of a smirk on his pockmarked face.“Look I..I know how this sounds like, but it’s the truth, I’m not making all this up, I know what I saw. There’s something down there in those tunnels, something which isn’t human, which sure as hell isn’t on our side, if it was my patrol would still be here.”“Mhmm.. Is there anything else Mr Allen, any other detail you would like to add?”“No, nothing else.” The specialist slumped back in his seat.“Incident Report 30-Omega-17 filed, next hearing would be 1700 Zulu tomorrow, thank you Specialist Allen.”The machine whined down, came to a stop, plunging the room into deathly silence, broken only by the faint metallic high pitched scratching sound in the background.